Ubuntu never finishes booting: A start job is running for Hold until boot process finishes up (3min 7s / no limit) -- removing 'splash' kernel parm fixes it

It appears this is not a plymouth bug. Some other part of the system is failing to start:

  A start job is running for Hold until boot process finishes up (3min 7s / no limit)

I experienced a similar issue myself recently... In my case it was /etc/fstab trying to mount a device that no longer existed. But this bug might be different.

What if you wait 5-10 minutes? Does it eventually time out and boot then?

Also, please run this command:

  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and then attach the resulting file here.

Waiting does not solve the problem. Note that the attachment shows the log of a succesful boot, not one that failed.

What happens if you edit
/etc/default/grub
to remove splash as a setting (that is, boot without plymouth).
I was having similar problems to you, also with log message saying job was on hold. I did not wait beyond 3 minutes. In my case, this only happens if an external monitor is connected at boot.

(see https://askubuntu.com/questions/33416/how-do-i-disable-the-boot-splash-screen-and-only-show-kernel-and-boot-text-inst for instructions on disabling splash screen)

My bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/1872159

Editing out splash from grub removes the splash screen and the problem. Interestingly, I can suspend the computer from the keyboard, change screen brightness but can't change to console.

Mordi,

> Note that the attachment shows the log of a succesful boot, not one that failed.

In that case please:

  1. Reproduce the problem again.

  2. Reboot.

  3. Run this command to collect a log of the previous (failed) boot:

     journalctl -b-1 > prevboot.txt

  4. Attach the resulting file to this bug.

Journal of the failed boot is attached.

Thanks, but weirdly that log contains less than 2 minutes' worth. Nothing is timing out there!?

This time I waited for two hours. I can get around this by enabling automatic login.

Identical bug.
Clean install on an elderly Lenovo Thinkpad that had worked perfectly on every version of Ubuntu since 12.10.
Clean install. The restart from installation process goes through correctly. But if the computer is powered down, it gets stuck on the splash screen. No time out - I left it running for an hour while I had lunch.
There is no way of getting started other than a re-install.
I can't attach a log or anything else, because the computer didn't start (I am writing this from Ubuntu 19.10 on another drive).

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I'm also affected, using a Lenovo W540 laptop, that was working with 19.10,

Interestingly it worked when I upgraded 19.10 to 20.04, but I then decided to do a clean install of 20.04 to get rid of some old graphics experiments with KVM, in order to get both graphics cards usable in ubuntu (this laptop has both nvidia and intel gfx)

Removing splash in grub seems to be doing the trick for me.

I think I have the same problem.

I did a fresh install of 20.04 on a Lenovo Carbon X1 6th gen. Previously it was working fine under 18.04.

The 20.04 install ran perfectly, and at first the system booted up and ran normally.

Shortly afterward I got a notice about a Thunderbolt firmware update from Lenovo. After I installed the firmware update, Plymouth started hanging.

The bug occurs when an external monitor is plugged in.

Removing splash option in grub fixes the problem.

I'm not sure which package is to blame here but to avoid the bug getting lost I will assign it to Plymouth for now.

I have a related issue. I did a clean install (previously had Linux Mint 19.04) and I'm not able to reach login screen unless I add `nomodeset` to the kernet parameters. However, after adding `nomodeset` it appears that my graphics driver never loads and I cannot change display brightness nor use a second display (the second monitor is never recognized). If I boot without nomodeset option, the second monitor indeed works (splash screen shows on both monitors) but it's stuck right there.

UPDATE: I "fixed" my issue by disabling plymouth in kernel params. I changed my grub file with the following: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="noplymouth video=SVIDEO-1:d"

After this change my computer booted normally (w/o plymouth of course) but now both monitors work and I can change my display's brightness.

Hi,

I encountered the same problem today.

Removing splash did not help.

Disabling plymouth worked, but I face a console login screen. It was also impossible to start lightdm manually. Apparently in my case lightdm is the problem...

For those that would land here because of lightdm:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/lightdm/+bug/1882970

Could the desktop team please take a look at this bug report as they did a fair bit of work on flicker free boot?

I think we need help from a systemd expert.

Is there a reliable way I can reproduce the problem? (I don't face it on my laptops.)
Is this happening on any Ubuntu-certified model? This could let our certification team to investigate the issue.

How can the systemd help? killing plymouth earlier?

Maybe related to bug 1872159, which supposedly happens when extra monitors are connected. Although I doubt that's the only requirement to make the bug happen.

Now I've written a fix for bug 1872159 I can confirm that multiple monitors are not a requirement. You could hit it even with a single display, but I haven't seen that case happen myself.

it sounds like this bug is a dup of bug 1872159? I'm assuming so, and marking this invalid for systemd.

Mordi,

Please ensure you have the latest updates installed:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt full-upgrade

then reboot and tell us if you still experience the problem.

[Expired for plymouth (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]